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Free Agent: APB: Reloaded

Imagine Grand Theft Auto, mashed together with the us-versus-them group mechanics of faction-based MMOs, all delivered with a foot-to-the-face of bad attitude – that's APB: Reloaded, the revived and tinkered-with corpse of a $100-million MMO that failed before it hit toddler age. In December 2011 GameSpy gave the reboot an average review. Has APB: Reloaded improved at all now that it's been given a year-and-a-bit to mature?

What is it? An MMO shooter that pits crooks versus vigilantes in an open-world city.

What makes it different? On-the-fly mission system and instant grouping mechanic throws players into frequent, frantic gun battles and car chases across San Paro.

What do you get for free? Unrestricted access to the city and all gameplay modes, and just about everything can be unlocked through playing APB.

Before you get downloading, watch out – the installer will want to put all sorts of nasty third-party crap on your system, so tread carefully if you don't want to find yourself the new owner of an APB-branded Xfire client, or a cancerous "search engine toolbar." After clearing the malware minefield, I build myself a Criminal, as rebellious as her purple hair. The opposing faction, Enforcers, may sound like baton-wielding cops, but don't be fooled; they're really just a different strain of criminal, with a slightly righteous, vigilante flavor.

Like the GTA games, the tutorial gets kind of buried by the immediacy of open-world freedom

The character creation screen offers many options – perhaps a little too many for my poor, compacted cranium to handle. I mean, being able to change the length of up to four different chunks of hair in a single hairstyle is conceptually cool, but after spending half an hour on such unnecessary tweakage, I have to wonder if another player might really say to me, "Gee, I like the forehead detail you chose there." Sick of the customization masturbation, I turn my character out into the world, too exhausted to care about fixing her weird eye-bags.

Like the GTA games, the tutorial gets kind of buried by the immediacy of open-world freedom. My point of entry into San Paro is a futuristic car park coated in a thick, satisfying veneer of scum. I've spawned a car and spent five minutes joyriding and running over hapless civilians before realizing that I'm being nudged, via a tiny alert in the upper-right of my screen, into doing actual missions.

Who needs a tutorial when there's free-dom!

There's something immensely cool in getting picked up by a teammate tooting his horn in a stolen vehicle.

You're allocated an available group by default, and that's where the social aspects of APB: Reloaded glow. Though I never once see someone type in group chat or speak over voice chat (the latter of which was surprising, given that a loading screen actually encourages the mic-equipped to verbally taunt their enemies), there's something immensely cool in getting picked up by a teammate tooting his horn in a stolen vehicle, before heading out to vandalize security cameras and spray-paint your territory. There's a sense of community and got-yo-back brotherhood here, even amongst silent players.

For such a crazy open world, San Para can be strangely quiet.

My starter guns were frustratingly ineffective, but money rolled in at a steady rate.

Missions are assigned frequently, pitting factions against each other. If a crew of Criminals is tasked with defending a planted car-bomb, say, then Enforcers will be sent out to defuse them, and those opposing objectives result in some pretty swell shootouts. My starter guns were frustratingly ineffective, but money attained from completing missions rolled in at a steady enough rate to see me upgrade to a more even playing field – and to ditch my hideous default tracksuit outfit, too.

Despite the super-helpful auto-grouping mechanics, however, I still feel like more could be happening in the world. I always feel as though I'm shooting the same five Enforcers over and over, and no matter how epic the fight grows in a mall or at the docks, civilians still stroll casually along the next block, as if we're merely throwing about Wiffle balls instead of bullets.

Insert Coin

I never really feel the need to plunk down cash, finding the freewheeling, thug-beating leveling process to be satisfying on its own – but in the interests of research I click over to APB: Reloaded's cash shop, laying down $15 for 1200 GamersFirst Credits, or G1C.

How much did we spend? $15

What did it get us? Premium membership for a month, granting 20% discount in the store and in-game XP and money boosts.

Was it worth it? The boosts are nice, but not a must. Disappointed the $15 wasn't enough for Premium and a new weapon.

Can you buy your way to victory? Not pay to win, but the starting weapons are weak. Impatient players might want to even the playing field immediately by buying a new gun.

The Armas Marketplace is chock-a-block with everything from guns to new threads, though it's immediately clear that the most pertinent purchase is a Premium membership – not least because it grants you 20% off everything else in store, in addition to the usual XP and in-game money gains. Disappointingly, though, while purchasing the entirely reasonable amount of 1200 G1C allows me to go Premium for a month, I don't have enough left over to buy a new gun. It is a brutal realization, especially given that the Marketplace allows you to trial guns for very temporary chunks of time.

Think the guns are expensive? Don't even look at cars.

APB steers clear of pay to win, but it does ask for a lot of cash if you're looking to purchase a new weapon or two.

Spending half an hour with a sweet N-HVR 243 Scout sniper rifle riddled me with a state of great longing, but after Premium discount it still cost 399 G1C for a month's access, or the equivalent of $5. (If you think that's a lot to pay for a digital gun, don't even think about buying a car.) It's APB: Reloaded's clever way of trying to get you to buy the next tier (or higher) of G1C, but I simply felt that $25 was more than I was willing to spend.

But despite choosing frugality, I admit I never feel too poorly about having to grind for other upgrades. I never find myself eyeballing the XP bar's progress, finding satisfaction instead in the simple pleasures of San Paro life – mugging passers-by, or hanging out of a buddy's passenger-side window while gunning down smarmy Enforcers trying to make a getaway in an armored truck.

Free or Flee?

While APB: Reloaded largely steers clear of the roadblocks of pay-to-win, it does ask for rather a lot of cash if you're looking to purchase a new weapon or two as a side to your Premium subscription. Of course, payment is largely unneeded. APB: Reloaded's not-quite-fleshed-out universe is not likely to hold your attention in the long-term, but for the week or two you'll spend in San Paro, you'll probably be playing purely for the deliciously dirty joy of vandalism and vigilantism anyway.

Despite the poor critical reception, APB: Reloaded continues to be among Steam's most played F2P games. That should tell you something: despite its flaws, APB is fun, and it's free. That's pretty much all this Free Agent can ask for.